Dunlop Manufacturing is one of the many, as well as one of the chief family businesses in the general guitar industry / sector - setting the pace and scope of what’s possibly with quality gear alongside outfits like Ernie Ball for over half a century (since 1965). And while Jim’s involvement of late has not been so prominent as in previous years, he has nonetheless left an indelible mark on the brands that he developed, innovated and evolved.

When I started the second chapter of my guitar adventures I was initially resolved to do things as simply as possible - one great guitar, and one great modelling amp. It was not long however before I discovered that this approach was not going to get me the sounds I had in my head, or the sounds I heard on Spotify or Tidal and wanted to accurately and faithfully reproduce.

So I quickly changed direction and ended up going down this very heavy pedal-centric route which you can read ...

This is not necessarily a definitive list, but consists of those guitar players and pioneers who most inspired me to want to get into guitar playing and attain some small part of their virtuosity. There are several pioneers of the guitar electronic dark arts here, but also some more traditional players whose sum experience is distilled down to a quite wonderful tone and dynamic and fluid playing style. This is far from a 10 best ever kind of list, these are simply the guys who make me want to ...